SMT Scharf AG concludes key lease in Poland
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industry/key lease
Hamm (euro adhoc) - February 16, 2009 - SMT Scharf AG (German Securities Code (WKN) 575198, ISIN DE0005751986), technology and world market leader for rail-bound railway systems for the mining sector, has concluded a key lease in Poland. The lease has a term of four years and a volume of close to PLN 8 million (approx. EUR 1.7 million) including maintenance.
The lessee is a Polish operator of several hard coal mines. One of the group's mines in the Upper Silesian coal basin will receive six monorail hanging railways of type DZ 1500 as part of this agreement. This customer has already been using SMT Scharf's monorail hanging railways for several years, in parallel to trains from two competitors. SMT Scharf's transport systems have proven to be highly reliable and capable of bearing great loads in day-to-day operations, with the result that the mine has now decided to use more of the Company's trains.
"Our railway systems convinced this customer. So much so that they have decided to use SMT Scharf again for their new trains. That is great news - it's an excellent testimonial for the quality of our products," commented Dr. Friedrich Trautwein, SMT Scharf AG's CEO. "During our IPO in 2007 we announced that leasing would be a component of our growth strategy. Of course we have concluded numerous leases for individual trains over the past few years. However, this order is of a whole new size, and it shows what the future may bring. We are confident that this project will play a pioneering role for other mines."
Company profile
The SMT Scharf Group develops, builds and maintains rail-bound railway systems for mining and use in tunnels. The trains are used all over the world, primarily in hard coal mines, gold mines and in underground mining for platinum, diamonds, copper and nickel. They are used to transport material and personnel with working loads of up to 35t. Rail-bound trains are the only means of transport that can be used underground on branching lines to cope with inclines of more than 13 degrees. The SMT Scharf Group has subsidiaries in Germany, Poland, South Africa, China and Russia, as well as agencies around the world. The railways developed by SMT Scharf are characterized, above all, by high-performance engines, high working loads, high speed and low operating and maintenance costs. SMT Scharf records more than 70% of its revenues over the course of the year on high-growth foreign markets, such as Russia, China and South Africa. The replacement parts and repairs business constitutes around 50% of revenues. The advances in exploitation of resources make underground conditions increasingly difficult which in turn requires more high technology transport solutions in mining. The total market for underground transport technology comprises around EUR 5 billion to EUR 7 billion per year according to company estimates. SMT Scharf AG has been listed in the Prime Standard (regulated market) of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since April 11, 2007.
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Further inquiry note:
Investor relations
cometis AG
Susanne Gremmler
Phone: +49(0)611 - 205855-23
Fax: +49(0)611 - 205855-66
E-mail: gremmler@cometis.de
Branche: Machine Manufacturing
ISIN: DE0005751986
WKN: 575198
Börsen: Börse Frankfurt / regulated dealing/prime standard
Börse Berlin / free trade
Börse München / free trade
Original content of: SMT Scharf AG, transmitted by news aktuell